"There is no half-way house, and there is no parallel in other religions. If you had gone to Buddha and asked him, ‘are you the son of Brahmah?’ he would have said. ‘my son you are still in the vale of illusion.’ If you had done to Socrates and asked, ‘are you Zeus?’ he would have laughed at you. If you had gone to Muhammad and asked ‘are you Allah?’ he would first have first rent his clothes and then cut your head off. If you had asked Confucius, ‘are you heaven?’ I think he would have probably replied, ‘Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste.’ The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which undermines the whole of man… He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three effects – Hatred – Terror – Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval."
— C.S. Lewis, “What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?”
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